Deposition and Tribological Properties of CVD Diamond/Diamond-Like Carbon Composite Films

Abstract

The CVD diamond/diamond-like carbon composite film is fabricated on the WC-Co substrate by depositing a layer of Diamond-like Carbon film on the surface of conventional Micro- or Nano-crystalline diamond film. The hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) method and vacuum arc discharge with a graphite cathode are adopted respectively to deposit the MCD/NCD and DLC films. A variety of characterization techniques, including filed emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and Raman spectroscopy are employed to investigate the surface morphology and atomic bonding state of as-deposited MCD/DLC and NCD/DLC composite film. The results show that both MCD/DLC and NCD/DLC composite films present similar surface morphology with the MCD and NCD films, except for scattering a considerable amount of small-sized diamond crystallites among the grain boundary area. The atomic-bonding state of as-deposited MCD/DLC and NCD/DLC composite films is determined by the top-layered DLC film, which is mainly consisted of amorphous carbon phase and no discernible sp3 characteristic peak can be observed from their Raman spectrum. Furthermore, the tribological properties of as-deposited MCD/DLC and NCD/DLC composite films is examined using a ball-on-plate reciprocating friction tester under both dry sliding and water-lubricating conditions, comparing with conventional DLC, MCD and NCD films. Silicon nitride balls are used as counterpart materials. For the CVD diamond/DLC composite films, the self-lubricating effect of top-layered DLC film is beneficial for suppressing the initial friction peak, as well as shortening the run-in period. The average friction coefficients of MCD/DLC and NCD/DLC composite films during stable sliding period are 0.07 and 0.10 respectively in dry sliding; while under water-lubricating condition, they further decreases to 0.03 and 0.07.